Box Score Boxscore
RYE, N.Y. – The Manhattanville men's hockey team started the game strong by scoring the first two goals of the night, but Elmira, ranked sixth in the USCHO.com Division III National Poll, stormed back to score six of the game's final seven goals and earn a 6-3 victory over the Valiants in an ECAC West Conference meeting on Saturday night at Playland Ice Casino.
Senior Kevin Willer was the star of the game for Elmira, scoring four times and adding an assist for a five-point night, while classmate and linemate Darcy Vaillancourt also had four points on a goal and three assists. For Manhattanville, junior Scott Hudson (St. Albert, Alta./Sherwood Park Crusaders (AJHL)) had a pair of goals and sophomore Brian Elser (Hopewell Junction, N.Y./Bay State Breakers (EJHL)) added one of his own, but it was not enough.
The evening started ideally for the home team, as Elser opened the scoring at the 8:58 mark by pouncing on the rebound of a shot from the point by senior Dillon O'Hara (Wallingford, Conn./South Kent School) and finding the net. The good play continued at the 12:54 mark, when Hudson intercepted a pass in the offensive zone and fired a wrister into the top corner of the netting to give the Valiants a two-goal edge.
The Valiants continued to control play against the nationally ranked Soaring Eagles for the next few minutes, but Elmira gained some much-needed momentum when some Valiant mistakes allowed the visitors back into the game. A Valiant giveaway at the offensive blue line resulted in a two-on-one the other way and a score by D'Arcy Oakes with 2:00 left in the first period, halving the Valiant lead. The home team followed by taking a penalty later in the frame that carried over to the second, and Willer needed just 28 seconds in the second stanza to score his first of the night to even the score.
Manhattanville looked to get the lead back at the 6:14 mark of the second period, but an apparent power-play goal by junior Brendan Turner (Tisdale, Sask./Lloydminster Bobcats (AJHL)) was called off by the referees. And yet, the Valiants still bounced right back, as Hudson lit the lamp a mere 20 seconds later off a feed from Turner to put the home team back in front again.
Unfortunately, that was the final bright spot on the night for Manhattanville, as Elmira scored four unanswered goals – three from Willer and one from Vaillancourt off a Willer pass – to pull off the comeback victory.
For the night, Elmira posted a 43-33 edge in shots, but that was helped by a 17-9 advantage late in the contest as the Soaring Eagles attempted to inflate the final margin. Senior Pierre-Olivier Lemieux (Rimouski, Que./Neepawa Natives (MJHL)) turned aside a career-high 37 shots in a losing effort, the most saves by a Valiant netminder since Sergiy Sorokolat (Kharkiv, Ukraine/South Kent School) '11 had 38 saves against Elmira on December 5, 2008. Junior Darren MacDonald made 30 saves on 33 shots for the visitors.
Manhattanville was slightly better on the power play against Elmira, going 1 for 7 with the man advantage, but also gave up two power-play goals for the second straight night and also a shorthanded tally as well.
Manhattanville (0-2-0, 0-2-0 ECAC West) will have plenty of time to prepare for its next game, as the Valiants are off for 12 days before returning to the ice on November 18 at Neumann beginning at 7 p.m. Elmira (2-2-0, 2-0-0 ECAC West) will return to action next Saturday at home against Neumann.
